Xin Ping ( 190s–204), courtesy name Zhongzhi, was a Chinese official who served under the warlords Han Fu, Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan during the late Eastern Han dynasty. Life Xin Ping was from Yangzhai County (陽翟縣), Yingchuan Commandery (潁川郡), which is around present-day Yuzhou, Henan. His ancestors were actually from Longxi Commandery (隴西郡; around present-day Dingxi, Gansu), but they migrated to Yingchuan Commandery during the Jianwu era (25–56 CE) of the reign of Emperor Guangwu in the early Eastern Han dynasty. Xin Ping started his career as an adviser to the warlord Han Fu, who governed Ji Province (covering much of present-day Hebei) from 189 to 191. In 191, Xin Ping, along with Xun Chen and Guo Tu, managed to persuade Han Fu to give up his governorship of Ji Province to another warlord Yuan Shao, who they said would be in a better position to defend Ji Province from an invasion by a rival warlord Gongsun Zan. Xin Ping subsequently became an official serving under Yuan Shao, and he brought along his younger brother Xin Pi. In the year 200, Yuan Shao clashed with his rival Cao Cao at the Battle of Guandu. During the battle, two sons of Yuan Shao's adviser Shen Pei were captured by Cao Cao's forces. Meng Dai (孟岱), one of Yuan Shao's subordinates, was not on good terms with Shen Pei, so he asked his colleague Jiang Qi (蔣奇) to pass a message to Yuan Shao: "Shen Pei has been behaving autocratically and he has strong support from his kinsmen. Now that his two sons have been captured by the enemy, he may think of defecting to the enemy to save his sons." Xin Ping and his colleague Guo Tu agreed with Meng Dai. Yuan Shao thus appointed Meng Dai as his new army supervisor and ordered him to replace Shen Pei as the officer guarding his home base in Ye (present-day Handan, Hebei). In 202, two years after his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao died without clearly naming one of his sons as his successor. A power struggle thus broke out between two of his sons, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, over the succession. Yuan Shao's followers were also divided into two camps: one camp, led by Shen Pei and Pang Ji, supported Yuan Shang and helped him gain control over Ye city; the other camp, led by